An Episcopal priest, composer of hymns, and author of more than two dozen books, Christopher Webber here gives us the remarkable story of a forgotten hero in 19th-century New York City. James Pennington, a scared and illiterate 19-year-old when he escaped from slavery in 1827, became a Yale scholar, a minister in the Congregational Church, and one of the leading abolitionist voices prior to the Civil War. He challenged segregated seating in New York City street cars more than a century before Rosa Parks took her monumental bus ride, wrote a "History of the Colored People," and closely studied the moral basis for civil disobedience. He traveled widely through Europe to gain support for the American abolition movement, and was so respected by European audiences that the University of Heidelberg awarded him an honorary doctorate—the first person of African descent to receive such a degree.

"Historical biography at its best. A must-read for anyone interested in African American studies and American religious history. This book is an important addition to the historiography of the pioneers of the anti-slavery and civil rights movements."—Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook